How to Publish an Android App on The Google Play Store – Useful Tips

Barbara RogalaScrum Master

Do you want to submit your Android app to the Google Play Store? Discover practical tips, useful links, crucial checklists – all in one place – and check out what has changed in the app publishing workflow!

If you are reading this, congratulations! You are about to publish your app on the Google Play store. We hope that your product will rock the world and we will be one of your future users!

Last week you could read my article about publishing an app on the Apple Store (it’s here). In this blog post, I want to share with you our knowledge and experience about submitting an app to the Google Play Store. You’ve probably heard about the newest changes and redesign at Google Store – below you will find tips and links, which will help you to settle in at these changes.

#1 Create an account

Before uploading the app to the store, you will need to have an active and paid account in the Google Play Developer Console. Here you can find the detailed instructions on how to configure that. Google provides a very clear and easy registration process, so you can complete it in a few minutes. All you have to do is:

Create and configure the account at Google Play Developer Console

#2 Gather everything required for uploading an APK

The keystore is critical to the publishing of the APK. Without it, or in the case of losing it, there will not be any possibility to update the existing app (more information)

Package name. Once you publish your application, it is not possible to change the package name. The package name defines your application’s identity, so changing it would force it to be considered an entirely different app and users will not be able to update to new versions. Your package name has to be unique (for more information, read the explanation)

# 3 Add an app to the list

Uploading an app is the very first step to properly configuring your future page on the Google Play store. You must have a valid Google Play Developer Console account. You may want to have more than one administrator. If so, read about how to add users to the account.

When you are logged into the Developer Console, click “Add new application” in the upper right-hand corner of the page. There, you will see two fields to fill:

“Default Language” will set up the language for the app in Google Play store

The “Title” that will be displayed in the Google Play store. It is not the title that appears below the app icon on a user’s device

When you finish this first step, you will be navigated to the new “Store Listing” page to add additional information about the app.

#4 Store listing – provide required information

On this page, you have to provide information about the app and your company. Most fields are required, but some are optional and depend on your business needs. Below, you can find the checklist with the links to the detailed information.

Name of the App (the name that will be displayed in the Google Play Store. The name that appears on a user’s device below the app icon is different (see example)

Short App description (brief description of the app, up to 80 characters)

Full app description (e.g. most valuable features, short instructions on how to use the app (see example)

Countries where the app will be distributed – e.g. the whole world/Europe/Poland only (see more details)

Information about ads

#5 Upload the APK

To upload the app, choose “App releases” page on the left menu. At this stage you have to decide which channel (Alpha, Beta or Production) you want to use.

TIP

When you don’t want to release your app immediately, choose Alpha or Beta. Here you can read more about capabilities of those channels

After choosing the proper channel, click “Create Release”

Add the signed APK file

Set up the release name and description

Now you are ready to publish your app to the world! Check your account on Google Developer Console – there is a lot of amazing tools to analyze your app audience, translate/customize your Google Play app site and much more!

Wrap up & free PDF

Yes, we know: that’s a lot of stuff! However, if you follow these details closely, you will be well on your way to being a rockstar in the app world. A well-prepared Google Play Store page is a major key to any app’s success. Good luck!

We have also prepared a handy checklist for you, so you can easily use it whenever you want. Be in the swim in your app publishing process! Sign to our newsletter below.